Today was very productive. With a simple background and no wardrobe to paint, this step of the process was quick and easy.
I started the morning masking the image, then airbrushing the background with a very, very light gray-lavender acrylic. In designing this image in photoshop, this background helped bring out the highlights in the model, as well as giving the overall image a nice tone.
Next, I freehand airbrushed five colors for the rainbow – light red, yellow, light aqua, light blue, and light violet. To finish the background, I airbrushed a mix of green and purple iridescent acrylics overall…
The remainder of the day was spent painting. I started with the face, painting the eyes and mouth (I once again added skin tone around the areas to help blending later, but I found myself coloring in the entire face to help see the tones better). Next, the hair, building up layers of watery gouache browns from ochre-red down to dark brown and black. I then painted the waist chain and charms with gray gouache, adding bits of black for shading, and white for highlights. While the black was out, I also painted the shoes. Then I used green watercolor for the rabbit’s foot, accents on the shoes, and the emerald in the clover charm. Again, I painted some skin tone around all these areas for later blending (including almost all of the foot areas, as they’re fairly small and I might not get much oil pastels in there).
With time remaining tonight, I was able to get to the textured gesso for the skin…
Tag pinup
work progress – paint and gesso completed
new image designed and ready today
The last few days I’ve once again been looking through photos in search of new ideas/concepts. I have a few muddling around in my head, but not sure if they’re ready yet. While looking through images from Stacy’s shoot, I saw some with a cute expression and the phrase ‘charmed I’m sure’ came to me. So, with that now a focus, I was able to pin down once pose that I felt worked best. The photo set was nudes, so I considered adding an outfit or accessories, but nothing seemed really useful or necessary for the concept. Instead, I gave her a simple waist chain with some charms attached, and a rabbit’s foot on a bracelet. The background will have a very subtle (hopefully) rainbow flowing toward her…
work progress – skin blocked in
It took some time to get all those large areas covered, especially with my finger tips getting sore, so I didn’t get it all done yesterday. Today I finished it off, covering the abdomen with the colored pencils and oil pastels. The skin is now covered, so next step is detailing, which I should get started still today. It should be finished some time tomorrow…
work progress – painting it up
Last night and today I spent working on all the paint areas. I started with the face, painting the eyes and lips with mostly gouache (and some watercolor on the lips). Next, I painted the hair, working layer after layer to build up the depth, darkness, and apparent detail (I don’t attempt to capture every hair, but rather try to give it a natural texture).
I then painted the black leather of the bra with watery layers of black and gray gouache. The highlights are mostly the paper showing through, so it’ll have a slightly different color tone than the skirt. The skirt was next, but once again I had trouble facing a large area with water. I just can’t get a smooth coat of color across without either the water evaporating, or the brush leaving streaks. Before getting overly frustrated, I masked it off and reverted to airbrush. Starting with black acrylic, I coated the area lightly, then built it up until the shadow areas were near solid. I then mixed some gray and turquoise in and hit the mid-toned areas. On the next pass, I kept adding more and more white to the mix, working up the highlights softly. I then decided to go for the ’sparkle’ finish, so I mixed steel and aqua iridescent acrylics and sprayed over the whole skirt, hitting the highlighted areas more than the shadows.
Once all that was dry, I used some acrylic black with a brush to define the creases in the material more. While I had it out, I mixed the black with a lot of water and washed the leopard spots on the bra (I played around with a few other patterns, but this still worked the best for me). Next, I mixed a turquoise-green gouache and washed it over the bra. I dry-brushed a bit on top of this with the same color to give it a hint of fur texture. I may use some colored pencils later to enhance that further. I finished out the leopard print with a wash of green within the spots.
The final bit I did today was adding white highlights to the skirt. If I have time still tonight, I hope to get the textured gesso down on the skin areas so I can begin blocking that in tomorrow…
work progress – new image begins
I had designed and drawn this new piece the other day (see yesterday’s blog). I masked and airbrushed the background yesterday, starting with a magenta mix (lightened and dulled using white and gray) for the middle of the piece. Then I filled out from there using a purple mix (with a touch of gray to dull, and ultramarine to deepen). I considered adding sparkles as I often do, but the color was so brilliant and fun, I didn’t think it needed anything more. The leather skirt has a sparkly sheen to it in the original photo, so maybe I’ll give it a touch of sparkles, we’ll see…
work progress – paint work done
Last night I painted the I.V. bag and stand, using gouache and watercolors. For ease of accessibility, I had the board upside down. Not only is it easier to get to then, but it changes my perception of what I’m painting, freeing me to get the details without interpretation. The stand is simple, so there’s not a lot to misinterpret, but still, it’s nice every once in a while. I also had time to paint the path lines on the floor, using gouache.
Today, I’m having some service work done to the house, so I was up early. I managed to complete the remainder of the paint work already, including the textured gesso for the skin, and the day’s only half over. I thought the pinstripes of the nurse outfit would be a long chore, but it went rather smoothly. It still needs some little touches of highlights and shadows to complete it, but the worst is over. The hair was fairly normal/typical, with no troubles along the way. The eyes and mouth may need further work, depending how they look against the finished skin. I once again edged all the painted areas with skin tone to ease the blending later, but not knowing exactly what the skin tone will end up being this time, it may not be of much help…
Since I have to wait for the gesso to thoroughly dry before starting the skin, I will work on t-shirt designs the rest of the day.
work progress – lots of airbrushing
I started today by masking out almost the entire board. Section by section, I removed a bit of the background and airbrushed the area using various mixes of gray-aqua acrylics. It was slow going, since I had to replace masking over areas I just painted, so there was a lot a waiting for everything to dry. For the section on the right side of the image, instead of using masking to block out the areas, I held cardboard against the surface. Hopefully this creates a softer edge, suggesting out-of-focus. Also, while painting those sections, I used the same color in the foreground floor for the wall’s reflection. I didn’t have the stand masked at the time, so you’ll see the bottom is somewhat covered. It’ll be dark gray, so I’m not concerned about that. I then used some gray colored pencils for the floor to give it a bit of texture.
A few more details remain, but then the background will be completed…
New art completed – “Today’s Lesson”
I worked on a few more details today, and it is now finished and available here.
work progress – detailing
Yesterday I worked on detailing the face and hands. Her left hand still needs some refinement, but otherwise it’s nearly there. I also deepened the blouse color some more with another wash of orange watercolor. I worked more on the hair, too, using colored pencils to add more detail to the curls.
It should be finished, scanned and available on the website tonight…
work progress – skin areas blocked in
Yesterday and today I worked on the skin areas, applying the color with colored pencils and oil pastels, then blending and contouring with my fingers. I found this skin tone to be a refreshing change, as I was able to use an entirely different set of pencils. It’s amazing to me how many different colors can be found in the skin. When I work, I try not to think of what the item is I’m coloring, but rather the colors I see in that section. There are some who will take this even further by turning the piece upside down, but I rarely go that far (only if it’s needed to get to an area for some reason). Sometimes this can backfire, as I’ll get too involved on a small section, and fail to see how it impacts its surrounding areas. Now, I try to step back from time to time in hopes of avoiding this (or at least catching it before it gets irreparable).
With the skin covered, next I can get to work on the details, and finish this piece up…
